by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

OAKLAND - This wasn't quite vintage San Antonio Spurs, but it was good enough for them to take a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference Semifinals.

The four-time champions who entered Oracle Arena with an identity crisis of sorts exited with a 102-92 win over the Golden State Warriors because their old reliable reappeared.

At least most of them did.

While Manu Ginobili continued to struggle, Tim Duncan had 23 points and 10 rebounds and Tony Parker had 32 points on 13 of 23 shooting. The Spurs, who had trailed big in the first two games of the series, controlled the game throughout and finally slowed a Warriors offense that had scored 100-plus points in six of its last seven playoff games. Golden State shot just 39.3% from the field, and the dynamic backcourt of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were held to a combined 12-for-37 from the field.

"They outplayed us, they out-worked us and they were the aggressor," Warriors coach Mark Jackson said.

As was the case all night long, the Spurs responded when they needed to. After Golden State cut San Antonio's lead to one with a Draymond Green runner midway through the fourth quarter, the Spurs' Danny Green and Parker hit back-to-back threes before Duncan applied even more pressure. His fall-away jumper from the right wing was good despite contact from Warriors center Andrew Bogut, and his subsequent free throw pushed the lead to 88-79.

Curry not only struggled on a 5-for-17 shooting night, but also turned his ailing left ankle in the fourth quarter. Curry, who had become the darling of these playoffs with his dynamic play, sprained the same ankle in the first round.

"He missed shots," Jackson said while not giving any clear answers about the ankle. "Give them credit. They did a good job defensively. But he missed shots. It's a make-or-miss league."

The Spurs, who were 50.6% from the field with just 11 turnovers, got back to the basics that coach Gregg Popovich had talked about before the game.

"You can't make the game too complicated," Popovich said. "The same simple things win and lose games: physicality, aggressiveness, how well you shoot, if you turn it over too much. It's not that difficult."

The Warriors tied it 65-65 midway through the third quarter, when Curry's three from the right wing capped a 17-8 run to start the second half after the Spurs had led from the mid-first quarter on. But San Antonio closed the quarter strong, using a 14-4 run to push their lead back to 10 points entering the fourth. Curry, who had dominated so many third quarters in his breakout playoffs, had missed 10 of his 15 shots.

The Spurs finally looked like themselves again in the first half, leading 57-48 at the break after Parker exploded for 25 points on 11 of 14 shooting. He hit runners, stepback jumpers, and even buried a circus shot falling to his left in the lane that banked in and was one of the many signs that the Warriors were in trouble.

"You can't take away everything he does," Thompson said of Parker. "You try to take away his shots around the rim, and he just makes (jump shots)."

Duncan added 10 points of his own, and Boris Diaw (nine points during his matchup with Draymond Green) made up for Ginobili's series-long struggles.

Golden State had hung in as best they could. The Warriors cut the lead from 11 points to four midway through the second quarter, when recovering forward David Lee made a surprise appearance (and his second of the postseason) and hit a jumper, a putback layup and grabbed two rebounds. They trimmed the lead from nine down to three as halftime neared when a Barnes dunk and a Jack three-point play nearly negated the Spurs' much-improved efforts. But the half finished in fitting fashion, with Parker scoring the final four points to secure the cushion that was well-earned.

For all the well-deserved hype about the Warriors' dynamic offense, it was their defense that failed them early. The Spurs shot 58.1 overall and had just four turnovers, playing the sort of crisp, clean style that had been missing in the first two games. San Antonio, meanwhile, held Golden State to 41.3% shooting.

Lee hadn't played since the Warriors' closeout Game 6 against the Denver Nuggets in the first round, when he returned just 12 days after suffering a torn right hip flexor that was expected to end his season. As Warriors coach Mark Jackson said before the game, the expectations were low for Lee.

"Best case scenario is that he's our All-Star power forward," Jackson said. "He has carried this team at timesā?¦He makes everybody better.

"The downside, potentially, (is Lee) going back to Square One (physically) and getting hurt."